At the present, as the recording medium of information appliance such as computer, the read-only disk such as CD-ROM, and the erasable disk of optomagnetic type or phase change type are used.
These disks are either mounted directly on a tray, or once incorporated into a cartridge to protect the disk surface, and the cartridge is mounted on a tray.
In such recording and reproducing apparatus, for example, when mounting a disk directly on a tray, the tray is loaded from the disk exchange position to the recording and reproducing position by means of a disk loading device, the disk is put on a turntable, the disk is rotated by the turntable, and the pickup is moved on the surface of the disk to record or reproduce.
When mounting a cartridge on the tray, the recording and reproducing method is same, but since the disk is put on the turntable to scan by the pickup, the disk protective lid of the cartridge is opened in the midst of loading of the tray.
Recently, not limited to the recording and reproducing apparatus having a tray for disk only, and the recording and reproducing apparatus having a tray for cartridge only, recording and reproducing apparatuses having a tray capable of mounting disk and cartridge selectively have been proposed (Japanese Laid-open Patent 7-161112, etc.). In the latter case, a disk mounting portion and a cartridge mounting portion are disposed on the tray.
It was, however, a demerit of such conventional recording and reproducing apparatus that the tray could not be used in vertical position.
Use of tray in vertical position is demanded among users of recording and reproducing apparatus in order to save space when using it as an external memory device of a computer or the like. It is also demanded among manufacturers of recording and reproducing apparatus in order to enhance the working efficiency in assembly or inspection of the recording and reproducing apparatus.
According to these demands, if the conventional recording and reproducing apparatus is used in vertical disk position, the disk which is only put on the tray drops easily, and if the disk is successfully loaded into the recording and reproducing apparatus, when the tray is taken out of the recording and reproducing apparatus, the disk drops off the tray, and the disk surface is damaged and the signal may not be reproduced. Or the clamp hole for mounting the disk may not be correctly engaged in the center of the turntable which is a rotary support table of the recording and reproducing apparatus.